Annie Jack

Annie Jack (1839 - 1912) (nee Hayr) was the first Canadian professional woman garden writer. Born in England, Jack moved to Canada as a teenager from Troy, NY, where she married a local farmer. She settled at "Hillside" in Chateauguay Basin, Quebec.

At Hillside, Jack raised 10 children in addition to maintaining her garden. The American horticulturalist Liberty Hyde Bailey referred to Jack's garden as "one of the most original gardens I know" (quoted in von Baeyer).

Jack was the author of the column "Garden Talks" in the "Montreal Daily Witness", and published the first Canadian gardening book, "The Canadian Garden: A Pocket Help for the Amateur" (1903, with a second edition in 1910). This remained the only Canadian gardening book available until after WWI.

References

Edwinna Von Baeyer, Ed. Garden Voices: Two Centuries of Canadian Garden Writing. Toronto: Random House, 1995.

Canadian Encyclopedia: Annie L. Jack [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0004081]